Devices for retaining a person's body heat, often referred to as "body warmers", are well known to those skilled in the art. Thus, by way of illustration, the prior art has disclosed disposable body warmers (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,366,492, 5,342,412, 5,046,479, and 4,925,743), body warmers for use under a blanket (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,300,100), and a variety of other body warmers of various sizes, shapes, and utilities (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,846,528, 4,841,646, 4,753,483, 4,282,005, and 4,241,721). The disclosure of each of the United States patents mentioned in this paragraph are hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
To the best of applicant's knowledge and belief, however, the prior art has not provided a body warmer which is relatively inexpensive to make and use, which can be reused indefinitely, which does not require the addition of chemicals or the use of electricity for its function, and which is washable. It is an object of this invention to provide such a body warmer.